Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden’s children have pushed the golden buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent as the auditions for the series come to an end.
The ITV talent show returned on Sunday, with judges Cowell, Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli, and presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – and the last few hopefuls for the semi-final week were revealed.
During the episode, Japanese skipping dancers Haribow, who somersaulted across the stage doing various tricks, left the judges almost speechless.
They received a standing ovation from the audience and numerous pleas for a golden buzzer, which would put them straight through to the semi-finals and are generally used only by the judges and hosts, from the BGT fans.
Dixon said she had “none left” regarding the buzzers along with Tonioli, while Cowell said that he “did not know what to say”.
“My son is literally going crazy right now,” Cowell added.
His son Eric, who he shares with wife Lauren Silverman, then went over and pushed the buzzer along with Holden’s daughter Hollie, who she shares with record producer husband Chris Hughes.
“They pressed it for the audience,” Holden said before calling the dancers “unbelievable”.
Congratulating the dance troupe, Donnelly told them: “That’s never happened before.”
Elsewhere, actor and comedian Dave Bibby also claimed he was trying to break a record by having custard pies thrown at him by McPartlin and Donnelly.
However, it had actually been a prank so that Cowell could throw custard pies at the Geordie presenting duo, who have previously played tricks on him.
“Dave you had us,” Donnelly said.
Also making into the next stage was an ensemble of women and a few men called Midlife Movers, who strutted their stuff to Relight My Fire, a nine-year-old magician, called Ella Rose, from Tamworth, and recorder player Richard Lindesay, 45.
Also receiving praise from the judges was Leightonjay Halliday, 23, a dancer from Scottish village Douglas, who used a small pool while expressing the vocals of Kodi Lee’s Change and ending up completely soaked.
Dixon said that “even if we took away the water” the dance would got through to the next stage, while Cowell said America’s Got Talent star Lee would be “so blown away when I call him and say ‘someone has just done the most unbelievable audition to your song’”.
American sword swallower Heather Holliday, 38, demonstrated putting a long blade into her mouth along with eight swords all at once, while turning around the stage and was given a standing ovation by some in the audiences and judges.
Cowell told Heather, wearing a gold dress, that she had a “star glow around you” and called her act “unbelievable”.
Heather and Leightonjay were both able to progress on the show.
Not making another round was the Radetzky Quartet from the Netherlands who played their instruments while engaging in slapstick comedy.
BMW is still the leader among legacy luxury brands, growing its sales while rival brands are going backwards.
Whether you consider Tesla a premium or luxury brand or not, we’ve included it here for context. Its only vehicles in Australia, the Model 3 and Model Y, sit at roughly the same price point as more affordable BMWs like the 1 Series.
For the sake of brevity, however, we have omitted ultra-luxury brands like Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
Compared to full-year 2023 results, the brands are sitting in the same positions for the most part.
However, Jaguar has leapt two spots on this chart as almost its entire petrol-powered lineup has seen a sales boost… just in time for all of these models to go out of production.
Tesla: 23,116 sales
Tesla may still have Australia’s two best-selling electric vehicles (EVs) by a comfortable margin, but its sales in the first half of 2024 were down 9.6 per cent on the same period last year.
The Model 3 was down 8.4 per cent despite the arrival earlier this year of a significant facelift for the model, while the Model Y was down 10.6 per cent.
BMW: 13,641 sales
BMW was one of the few brands on this list to improve on its standing in the first half of 2023.
Its sales were up 9.1 per cent, driven by significant gains among its smaller, more affordable models.
The recently redesigned X1 was up 43.4 per cent to 2255 sales, overtaking the X3 as the brand’s best-seller.
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Its X2 coupe SUV sibling was up 217.9 per cent to 728 sales as the new model comes on stream, while the 2 Series coupe range is up 85.6 per cent to 900 sales.
Not every small BMW was up, however, with the 1 Series down 49.4 per cent to 530 sales ahead of a next-generation model, while the 2 Series Gran Coupe was down 40.9 per cent to 364 sales.
Note that BMW splits some electric models out from their combustion-powered counterparts (e.g. i7 and 7 Series) and combines others (X1 and iX1).
The electric i4 has climbed the charts to become BMW’s fifth best-selling vehicle, behind only the X1, X3, X5 and 3 Series. Not only that, but the i4 outsells the related petrol-powered 4 Series Gran Coupe by around three-to-one.
| Model | H1 sales | YTD change |
|---|---|---|
| X1 | 2255 | +43.4% |
| X3 | 1884 | -7.9% |
| X5 | 1604 | -10.7% |
| 3 Series | 1511 | -6.8% |
| i4 | 1177 | – |
| 2 Series Coupe | 900 | +85.6% |
| X2 | 728 | +217.9% |
| X7 | 566 | +9.9% |
| 1 Series | 530 | -49.4% |
| X6 | 403 | +63.2% |
| 4 Series two-door | 383 | -1.5% |
| X4 | 374 | -8.6% |
| 2 Series Gran Coupe | 364 | -40.9% |
| 5 Series | 350 | +75.9% |
| iX | 255 | -50.7% |
| 4 Series Gran Coupe | 168 | -67.3% |
| XM | 70 | +118.8% |
| Z4 | 43 | +10.3% |
| i7 | 23 | -23.3% |
| 7 Series | 21 | -57.1% |
| 8 Series two-door | 19 | -34.5% |
| 8 Series Gran Coupe | 10 | -63.0% |
| 6 Series GT | 3 | – |
Mercedes-Benz: 9613 sales
Even if you include the 2345 vehicles sold by the Mercedes-Benz Vans division, the three-pointed star brand falls short of its Bavarian rival.
Its sales were down 24.1 per cent on the same period last year.
Most models were down on the first half of 2023, with exceptions being the GLA (1011 sales, up 9.8 per cent) and its electric EQA sibling (624 sales, up 58.8 per cent).
Also up were the more niche G-Class (up 86.7 per cent), SL (up 142.9 per cent), and Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe (up 250 per cent). Otherwise, it’s declines across the board.
